LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers added nearly $2 billion in guaranteed contracts over the past two winters, half of that to sign two-way star Shohei Ohtani and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But there is one thing they can’t buy with their deep financial resources: A healthy pitching staff.
Five months after injuries forced them to win a World Series with a three-man rotation, the Dodgers are closing April with three starters — Blake Snell (shoulder inflammation), Tyler Glasnow (shoulder inflammation) and Clayton Kershaw (recovery from toe and knee surgery) — on the injured list.
Ohtani, who is still recovering from , remains “months away” from returning to the mound, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday, and backend relievers Blake Treinen (forearm tightness) and Michael Kopech (shoulder impingement) are sidelined.
The latest rash of injuries prompted the Dodgers to employ a bullpen game against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night, their second of the season.
“It’s something as an organization that we’ve been trying to wrap our heads around, because it’s not a good quality of life for anybody,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said. “It’s not for the players who suffer the injuries. It doesn’t help us operate at an optimal level as a ballclub.”
Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations, said the Dodgers conducted “a deep dive” into pitching injuries during the offseason, canvassing club executives, pitching coaches and medical experts.
Friedman thought the additions two-time Cy Young Award winner Snell and Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki this past winter to a rotation that was returning Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin from Tommy John surgeries would insulate the Dodgers from rotation setbacks.
But the team seems no closer to solving its pitching injury woes than it was going into last winter.
“It was bucketed into two different situations, the first being guys we call up from the minor leagues and what they’re prepared for, what they’ve been doing in their personal buildup over the years … to get accustomed to different roles, like a guy who has started for his whole career and all of a sudden he’s in the bullpen,” Prior said.
“The other thing is just pitching in big league games these days is extremely taxing and grinding. It used to be that you worried about the one through six hitters, especially in the National League, having pitchers (hit), you could kind of throttle back a little bit.
“Now, you’ve got to bring your A game to almost every single batter, so there’s probably some unquantifiable stress there that, as an industry, we just haven’t quite grasped yet.”
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